Reference is made to commonly assigned copending patent application Docket No. F-480 filed herewith entitled xe2x80x9cA Method For Printing A Manifest Or Statement Of Mailing Having A Pattern That Matches A Pattern Printed On The Edges Of Mail Pieces Contained In A Trayxe2x80x9d in the names of Kenneth G. Miller, Thomas J. Foth, Brian M. Romansky, Richard W. Heiden and Ronald Reichman.
The invention relates generally to the field of mailing systems and, more particularly, to systems for tagging mail.
Initially, the processing of mail involved a mailer dropping letters or mail pieces into a mail box, having the post office pick up the mail from the mail box, transporting the mail to a post office and dispatching the mail to its ultimate destination, whether this destination be local or out of town. As time progressed, large mailers would deliver the mail directly to the post office where the mail would be inspected, sorted and forwarded. The post office found that if the mailers were given postal discount rates for performing certain acts, such as the presorting of mail, i.e., by zip code, bundling the mail and the like, a great deal of time would be saved by the post office. As a result of such discounting, large mailers were encouraged to preprocess their mail, and mail processing equipment such as scales, inserters, folders, sorters and the like were developed to assist the mailer in their mailing operation.
Mailing equipment has been developed to accomplish the foregoing. In equipment for processing large amounts of mail, it is frequently a practice to determine the weight of inserts of a mail piece, and together with the weight of the envelope, the total weight of the mail piece is calculated and postage paid in accordance with the calculated weight. The mail pieces are placed in trays, and these trays are delivered to the post office. Sometimes the mailing equipment, mailing software, or the mailer produced written records automatically or manually indicating information about the mail pieces in the tray. The post office verified written documentation supplied by the mailer by randomly sampling the mail pieces in trays to determine if the correct postage was paid.
Some mailers practiced a procedure known as xe2x80x9csaltingxe2x80x9d. The practice involved inserting mail pieces into the tray for which no postage was paid. Salting has caused the post office to loose a great deal of funds.
Another problem encountered by the prior art resulted when one or more mail trays dropped, and the contents of the mail trays were no longer in order. A large amount of labor was required to properly re-order the mail pieces in the dropped trays, or the post issued discounts for mailer tasks that were not performed by the mailer.
An additional problem encountered by the prior art was that, oftentimes, personnel placed tray label tags on the incorrect tray.
This invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by utilizing a method that improves the post office""s ability to verify the mail pieces in a tray and reduce the ability of someone to insert mail pieces into a tray for which no postage is paid. The invention also insures the integrity of mail trays and makes it easier to place mail pieces in the tray after the mail pieces have fallen from the tray. This invention also makes it easier for personnel to place the proper tray label tag on the proper tray.
The foregoing is accomplished by: determining the measurement of an edge of each mail piece that will be placed in a tray; determining the thickness of each mail piece that will be placed in the tray; determining the number of mail pieces that will be placed in the tray; calculating an incremental pattern dab that is going to be placed on the edge of each mail piece; placing a portion of the pattern on the edge of each mail piece that is going to form the mail pieces of the tray; and placing the mail pieces in the tray in an ordered manner so that the edges having dabs will be visible, and the dabs will form a pattern that indicates the determined number of mail pieces are in the tray in the correct order. The pattern for each mail tray is added to each mail tray is added to and saved in a mail manifest or a statement of mailing. The mail manifest or statement of mailing will subsequently submitted to the post.